Hope - Advent - Day 1.. Week 1

I decided that I wanted to write some Advent devotionals. It's 9 pm on the first night of Advent. I have not written word one while I try to fight off this whatever non-virus it is. (Corona negative).

So, my fever brain decided to search my old devotional files for the word HOPE.

And the neatest thing... there were too many results. "This shows up a lot"

Y'all. My life's testimony in one word is Hope. God has restored so much for me over the years. I pulled up example after example in my devotionals. They are from 13 years ago, give or take... Before Al... Before Jay... Before Jackson.

Those devotionals were all in the waiting years of hope... not fulfilled.

This week - Week 1 of advent... is all about hope. So I "hope" I find a lot to encourage you with.

Let's start off with a strange place to find hope - Job

Job 42:2

"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Knowing that Job said this after all the junk he had been through is incredible. Job really had gone through more bad things than anyone I know. He'd lost everything and no one stood beside him. Yet he knew that God's plan had never suffered when he did. Job knew that God had only good in store for him. What do I think is key in this? One word that I notice I use here a lot is "through." 

Job went through all of this. 

He didn't sit and moan (okay, he didn't do it much). He let God bring him through the bad stuff and to the end. Push on folks. There has to be an end somewhere. God has shown it over and over again.

I wish I could tell you I knew when that end was. I have no idea.  But I know that seasons never last. This one will be no exception.

Someday we will be telling stories to the next generation of how we survived Covid19. They will be hard stories.  But, like all seasons, we will start to remember the good things too.
It's one of the toughest seasons of all our lives most likely. But there are hopeful things. There are rays of light either right here or somewhere just out of sight.

Advent Prayer - Week 1 - Day 1

Father,

Please help us see that you are working here, even when we cannot see it. Make this season a season where we see you fully. Help us move through this world with joy. May we be reminded every day of the humanity that is all around us. Help us to see where we can bring hope and joy to the tired world that is around us. If any of my friends reading this prayer need that hope and joy, please show up this week in some unexpected way and bring peace, hope, and joy.

Amen

You're my peeps... Much love to you.

-Gina